If you are planning on participating in the 2008 Swing Week horn class, I welcome you. You're going to have a busy week and have opportunities to make good friends and good music. 

As a horn student, you should have already developed good basic technique on your chosen instrument.  You need to have a good instrument, know scales and be able to play in tune. It's helpful if you can read music...  even if we may not spend much time reading music.  

One of the objectives of this class is for you to gain skills in "playing by ear." At the conclusion of Swing Week you should be newly equipped with methods to improve your ability to improvise solos and to "fake" ensemble lines and parts. At that time I would like you to be in possession of new practice techniques that will increase your enjoyment of playing music and make more effective your time in the practice room.  

It's important for a jazz and swing musician to know tunes. We will talk about repertoire, where to find tunes and how to learn them. We'll discuss and listen to recordings. We'll deal with improvising behind vocalists or solo instrumentalists (including call and response techniques), defining a role within a band, and some basic improvising of harmony parts. We'll talk about playing with good time.

 Just as it's essential to understand a musical language, it's also important to understand and abide by unspoken protocol on the bandstand. We'll cover this indispensable information also.

 All week we'll be talking about the concept of "swing." What it is…what it ain't, and why it's a whole lot more fun to play music that swings.  Bring your horn, bring your sense of humor, note- keeping material, as well as your ears and enthusiasm.

Please feel free to contact me at johnjensen@pxrec.com to indicate what horn you will be bringing to class and to ask any questions.

See you at Swing Week!

John Jensen
www.dcjazz.com/johnjensen